Image Credit: Movie Once Upon a Time in America
The Brooklyn Bridge that connects Brooklyn to Manhattan opened in 1883 and cost tens of millions of dollars at the time. After the bridge was built, the crooks had a new "live". If at that time, you were a new "new drifter" and looked very rich, there was a good chance that someone neatly dressed, wearing a bow tie and wearing a flat cap would come up to you and introduce himself as a bridge The owner, gossiping that a toll booth on the bridge would be very profitable, and revealed in gossip that he planned to sell the bridge - this man, George C. Parker.
It's an elaborate scam, and if Parker is questioned, he can come up with a high-quality, impressively fake certificate of title. The scam worked so well that Parker sold the bridge almost twice a week for three decades for anywhere from $50 to $50,000, depending on the customer (victim). The result: fraudulent buyers got fake title documents, started collecting card tolls, and the police were busy dismantling the toll booths set up by the "new owners" on the bridge.
Image credit: movie I'm Legend
I'm not tired, when the bridge business was deserted, Parker was busy selling other major New York landmarks, disposing of the original Madison Square Garden , Metropolitan Museum of Art at various times , Statue of Liberty . He spent more than 40 years with empty gloves until he was tried and convicted of fraud and sentenced to life in prison in 1928. Although Parker and his story of selling the bridge were popular with inmates and prison staff, he died in prison in 1936.
Image credit: movie Maid of Manhattan
Reference: armenianweekly
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